Baked Teriyaki Chicken

I haven't posted in awhile (again), but I was inspired by a recipe I came across for Baked Teriyaki Chicken. It was so easy and relatively quick, but what I liked the most is that I had all the ingredients in my kitchen already! I usually find great recipes, but lack at least one important ingredient.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my meal, but I served it over brown rice and steamed some stir-fry veggies as well. The only thing I wish I would have done is doubled the sauce ingredients. It coated the chicken nicely, but there wasn't any extra to add to the rice or veggies. I'm a sauce person and would have liked to have a little bit more.

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1/2 cup white sugar (I didn't add a full 1/2 cup. Close to it, but not quite. It seemed like a lot of sugar.)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar (I substituted white vinegar.)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 12 skinless chicken thighs (I thawed frozen chicken breasts during the day and cubed to cut down on baking time.)

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cornstarch, cold water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and ground black pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and bubbles.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
3. Place chicken pieces in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Brush chicken with the sauce. Turn pieces over, and brush again.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn pieces over, and bake for another 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Brush with sauce every 10 minutes during cooking. (I baked for 15 minutes, turned the pieces and baked another 15 minutes.)

This chicken turned out very tender, juicy and had a great taste.

Spring has arrived and if you're anything like my family, you and your kiddos are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Easter Bunny! I like to keep our focus of the holiday on the reason we celebrate it, but the excitement of hunting for goody-filled baskets and eggs adds to the joy. :)

Each year since having kids, I search the stores looking for items to put in their baskets that don't include sugar and might last a little longer than a piece of candy. So, I've compiled a list of some great basket stuffers in an effort to save you some time in your searches. I've tried to include ideas for several age groups and these can all be purchased for fairly cheap.

I'm wondering what the Bunny will bring for YOUR kiddos this year. Please let me know. :)

- Coins in eggs (you can never wrong with money!)

- Barrettes/hair accessories

- Temporary tattoos (my girls love these and one sheet lasts us a long time)

- Small dolls/action figures

- One larger toy they’ve been asking for

- Movies (you can get $5 DVD's at large, chain stores and even $1 movies at the dollar store)

- Stuffed animals

- Coupons for “treats” like an extra time added to a curfew, a special dessert, a special outing to someplace your child likes

- Socks (I see cute seasonal socks in the dollar section at Target all the time)

- Crayons/Markers

- Chalk

- Coloring books

- A fave, framed photo (My girls love to look at pics of themselves LOL)

- Watch

- Wallet

- Jewelery (I'm thinking of the dress-up kind for young kids, but you can also get cute, fashion earrings/necklaces/bracelets for an older child)

- Perfume

- Lip gloss

- Stickers

- Flashlights

- Craft kits (Michael's craft store has a ton of foam craft kits that are easy to make and my girls adore them)

- Flower seeds/kits

- Sunglasses

- Travel games/card games

- Homebaked treats (granola bars, cookies, trail mix)

- Play-doh

- Goldfish crackers

- Paper dolls (I have found some printable ones online that I put on heavy paper. They are fantastic!)

- Puppets

- Slinkies

- Raisins

- Granola bars

- Leggings/tights

- Movie tickets

- ITunes gift card

- Toothbrush

- Hairbrush

- Comic books

- Photo album

- Sports cards

- Water bottle

- Magic tricks

- Beach towel

- Books

- Kite

- Small Lego sets (Walmart and Target have these GREAT themed Lego sets in their Easter sections. They don't have many pieces and would fit nicely into a basket.)

- Ball cap

- Bubbles

- Baseball/basketball/football

- Marbles

- Squinkies/Zoobles (Popular little toys nowadays)

- Hexbug Nano (I saw one of these in action the other day and they are too cute!)

- Hot Wheels

- Baby puffs (These are a great alternative to candy for particularly young children who are eating table foods)

- Gardening tools

- Kaleidoscope

Super simple pot roast

Who doesn't love pot roast?! I suppose it's not something you could mess too easily, especially in the ever-so-handy slow cooker, either. However, here I go again...So proud of myself for "cooking" another meal. I'm shameless...I know. But really- this isn't something I'm used to doing! :)

Here's what I used, some which I bought and some of which I had in my fridge and needed to use up (some suggested by my mom):

- 4lb roast from Giant Eagle. This was a lot of meat and buying a single one for $20 was pricey, but they often have B1G1 deals so it was really only $10.

- Five medium/large potatoes cut into chunks

- Five whole carrots chunked into large pieces

- 3/4 large white onion

- 1 bag frozen green beans

- Onion soup mix

- One can beef broth

- One can cream of mushroom soup

- 2 cups water to give it a little more "juice" (I really should have used two cans of beef broth, though.)

- Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients into the slow cooker and set your desired time/heat setting. I set mine on "high" heat for 6 hours. The roast wasn't quite as tender and I had hoped and think it could have used a tad bit more time, but it was cooked through and it still cut easily. We had PLENTY of meat leftover- of course, a family of two adults and three small children can't eat 4lbs of meat! It was super yummy, easy and cheap to make. My 15 month old ate two helpings at dinner that night, as well as two helpings for lunch the next day!

Here is a picture pre

-cooked.

Getting Creative

I've been feeling "domesticated" lately! :) A couple days ago, in a single day!, I got clothes in the washer and dryer, put clothes away, played some games with my girls, cleaned up some areas of the house that have been driving me crazy, got my nephews to their afternoon class...But what I'm most excited about is that I tried out some new recipes!

I'm really starting to enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes and am even getting comfortable with taking a recipe and changing it up a bit. (I know, I know. This isn't a big deal for some people, but for me...) So, the afternoon started with plain old tomato soup. Ally wanted some so I fixed it, no frills, and was settling down to my bowl when I decided maybe I'd add a little mozzarella to it. "Hmmm", I thought, "what about some basil, too?" I sprinkled a bit on and it took boring tomato soup to YUM! Good flavor, which would have been great with a crispy piece of bread, but I had to settle for crackers instead. In any case, it was really good, taste-wise and budget-wise!

Then came the cookies. I had found a recipe for "Brownie Cookies" on allrecipes.com. I love both brownies and cookies and was super excited about these. It called for the dough

to be refrigerated overnight so I mixed it Sunday and planned on the girls helping me roll the dough balls in the morning, which

I ended up just doing myself because the dough ended up sooo sticky it just wasn't going to be worth the mess of them helping. (Yes, I'll admit that I'm not terribly patient all the time and just like to "get things done.")

So how are the cookies? I'm a little torn. They look great and they crackled nicely on top, which I was hoping they would do, and they taste great...My only issues with them are 1) how sticky the dough was, like I mentioned, but nothing I couldn't handle and 2) how light they are. Maybe "light" isn't the proper word...They just aren't dense like brownies would be. I guess I like the texture of a good, thick brownie. *shrugs* BUT we all like them and I give them 2 days before they're gone. :)

And now dinner. (Goodness, did I really make all this food today?!) I had planned on Green Pepper Casserole for that night when we had gone to the store over the weekend so I had the basic ingredients for a recipe, which I had found online as well. I had the green peppers, beef, rice, cheese and tomato sauce. The fun part about this was what I was able to mix in and make it taste quite good, if I say so myself. :) I added onions, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and worcestershire sauce to the beef after it was drained and instead of the cheddar cheese the recipe called for I sprinkled Parmesan on the top. Oh, and I used pasta sauce instead of tomato.

Not the most extravagant, I'm sure, but I'm so proud of myself. Everything turned out good and my girls liked it *all,* which is a bonus. They are not picky eaters in the least, but I typically have at least one that turns their nose up at something I've made. :)

The Dust Has Settled

Finally. Three days after our big Christmas morning and I've begun to, slowly, sort through all the gifts the girls received. You see, they have three Christmases- One on Christmas Eve with my family (my parents, sister and her family, brother and his wife, my uncle and my grandmother), OUR Christmas on Christmas morning after Santa has visited the night before and another at my husband's parents' house later in the day. By the time we arrive home on Christmas night we're all just too beat to organize anything, throw away boxes/packaging or to even pick it all up off the floor!!! It's such an exhausting process. Rewarding and sooo much fun, but exhausting.

In the past few days we've combed through princess dolls, fairy dolls, building blocks, books, musical instruments, games, clothes, tents, pull-string dolls and stuffed animals. It's outrageous- they don't know what to play with since there's so much and I don't know where to put it all!

My goal (wow, that's an intimidating word!) is to get some of their old toys put away into our growing pile of "old toys" in our basement. The next step will be to get all the new things onto the toy shelves...I just don't know how to do it!
So...I'm looking for ideas. How do YOU organize your child(ren)'s toys? What containers? What kind of shelving? Drawers? Any, any, any ideas are welcome. The hurricane has passed, but the recovery MUST begin! :)

Random Thoughts

So, here we are and it's been awhile since I've posted again. I have a few arts & crafty types of things to post and share, but finding the energy to do so isn't coming to me. :)

Instead, I'd just like to share a little promise I've made to myself and to my children:

Girls, someday you will be tweens, pre-teens, teenagers and eventually adults. I have no idea what those days will bring- what heartaches you will endure, what your accomplishments will be, what level of education you will earn, what career you will pick or what your favorite hobbies will be. But I promise to always love you and accept you unconditionally.

I may disagree with you or your choices sometimes and you will most definitely disagree with me on occasion, but no matter how you choose to live your life I will be supportive, promise to lend an ear if you need to talk, promise to offer advice if you want it and learn to keep my advice to myself if you just aren't in the mood to hear it.

This is my vow to you. I may forget to honor it sometimes, but no matter what- you are my children and I love you. Always and forever.

Love,
Mama

Yummy, Tasty Treats!

My disclaimer is this is not my own recipe and I found it here, but these are really great tasting and even easier to make!!! They are calling them Parmesan Knots, but I'm renaming them temporarily this Sunday for K's 3rd birthday party (themed for The Incredibles) to Omnidroid Knots. :)

• 1 tube (12 ounces) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
• 1/4 cup canola oil (I will be changing this to use melted butter instead this time around)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

• Cut each biscuit into thirds. Roll each piece into a 3-in. (I rolled them out to probably about 6 inches) rope and tie into a knot; tuck ends under. Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
• In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; add the warm knots and gently toss to coat. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen

I would assume any bread dough would work just the same, but these aren't bad. :) I am always looking for EASY and tasty additions for dinner time and these will be making a comeback every once in awhile!